We all know the story on how Hicks and Gillett tried to fire him and Ian Ayre yesterday because they were backing the sale to NESV against H&G’s wishes. So why did Christian Purslow go against the two that had hired him?
Here are the possibilities why Purslow did what he did for one or more of these reasons.
1) He is a Liverpool supporter and did it for the love of the club.
2) He knows that once new owners come on board he will be out of a job, so he wanted to kiss up with the hope that they keep him on or at least offer him a decent severance package.
3) Like Purslow John Henry is a Wall Street/City guy so maybe it is some special bond these bankers share.
4) Christian Purslow saw my posting and tried to prove me wrong. :-)
5) None of the above.
I do give him kudos for doing the right thing yesterday, hopefully the new owners will give him a decent severance package so he can return to banking and we can get a chief executive who understands football.
What ever your opinion is on the whole thing I respect it, please respect mine. I just can’t get myself to supporting the guy who fired Rafa and then snubbed Kenny.
As far as Ian Ayre is concerned I don’t have a problem with him, I think he is doing a pretty decent job.
YNWA
-Antoine
‘Let sleeping dogs lie’.
Whatever the reason, let us all true reds hope that the new owners take back LIVERPOOL where they belong……..The best team in the U.K and EUROPE.
YNWA…JFT96
Who knows what his reasons are, but it’s definitely not number 4 :-)
Please note the following rant is what i wrote last night when the story broke and i had to google up about this guy John W. Henry………
I wouldn’t trust another Yank unless he has huge amounts of his own money and is willing to put it in the club. John W Henry was only worth 1.1 billion dollars in 2009, this means he will also probably get loans to purchase the club and buy a stadium with loans. If im right it would cost 300-350 million for the club, plus 400-500 for a new stadium and then you have transfer kitty for new players, are you telling me this guy would pay his total of what hes worth on us i doubt that very much, and if he did where would the rest of the money come from for the future running of the club???? Maybe he wants to buy to sell it on for a profit aswell. The Asian consortiam sounds better but we need to find out more about them aswell, the future of our club is in the balance here. The following is the link of how much John W. Henry was worth as of April 1 2009 (This wasn’t know Aprils fools joke either) you can also read about him in the telegrapgh.co.uk, who have stated he was worth 1.1 billion in 2009 but now is worth around 900 million.
http://www.marketfolly.com/2009/04/forbes-billionaire-list.html
I think maybe once hes built the stadium he might sell the club on for a profit since the 300 mill hes paid is quite a bargain, or he might decide a groundshare with Everton is the best way to go, i don’t think he’ll be refurbishing Anfield like he did the Sox stadium as it would cost too much…….YNWA
ANTOINNE WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS GUY, IN AMERICA??????
and by the man, i meant rafa, i taught one of his girls at year 6 at primary school, genuinly a nice guy but it was his time
i was a sceptic re purslow too, why not eat a bit of humble pie and give an abject open apology. consider this my apology mr purslow.
People like Christian Purslow can walk into another job tomorrow regardless of how they performed in their current posts, that’s how the financial world works.
Regardless of how long he has been a fan of the club, I think Purslow would be happy to see the back of LFC as a 9 to 5 concern what with all the flak he has taken over the past 12 months. I doubt very much that he’s pleading for his job. Besides, he’s clearly respected for his business sense, if not for his football knowledge, so I don’t think he’ll be busking for spare chage outside Lime Street Station anytime soon.
This article in the Guardian from Boston Globe sports editor sums up what Henry has done in Boston, nicely: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/oct/06/liverpool-boston-red-sox
I’m in Canada and I don’t follow baseball much anymore but the parallels between the Red Sox and the Reds are eerie. John Henry took a team with a rich heritage and huge and loyal fan base that HADN’T WON IN 86 YEARS and he made them winners, short and long term. He restored the glory where no one else could. In that 86-year drought the hated Yankees won the World Series 25 times. Red Sox fans are like Reds fans, only far more patient. :)
If we’re looking for ownership to intelligently invest in players and a stadium (new or renovated) while respecting history, this might be the best possible ownership group for us on the planet. They don’t have Russian oil money, but they have a great combination of money, smarts, understanding of sports and disdain for leveraged buyouts. This is Christmas, people.
Antoine, I’ve never felt like Purslow was ever doing anything but looking out for the club. I respect your opinion, but on the subject of Christian Purslow I think you’re wrong. When the smoke clears I think we will all owe Purslow, Broughton and Ayre a huge debt of gratitude. If Purslow wants to stay on afterward (I suspect he won’t) he would have my vote for what he has done here.
YNWA
My personal opinion is #1. I think he has always been pretty forthright and I do believe he acted in the best interests of the club. I know some people hate him for sacking Rafa but it was Rafa’s time to go and he made a tough decision that made him unpopular. The bottom line is that he has played a major role in helping us find new owners that will hopefully put this mess behind us and I think history will continue to show he had the best intentions for the club.
Ref: the C. Purslow Question.
Personlly i think the question it’s self is a bit harsh on him.
It’s widely know he is a LFC fan and season ticket/box owner, so in my eyes it’s definitly anwser A. Yes he may look good in front of the fans, Kopites and NESV but lets be honest he doesn’t need the job this goes for Broughton too, they have there own money and rep. even before this whole situation lifted it’s ugly head. I’m not quite sure way MB took the the Chairmans job, maybe to show Chelsea what he can do, maybe the cash that was offered or maybe just owned someone at BarCap or RBS a favour it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that MB CP and Ian Ayre have been not only instrumental in this sale agreement but they did what every LFC fan wanted them to do and stuck up for the club and told H&G NO enough is enough get out. If H&G win the court ruling both CP & IA will be out of jobs, but as sure as we can be that (hopefully) won’t happen.
Markolfc Y.N.W.A.
I think if the new stadium does get built wed be sharing it with Everton under this owner, he does whats best for the Club and the business not what the fans want. I personally would want our own stadium, but if we did have to share id rather it be our stadium and the Tofees pay us rent. Whatever happens it can’t be as bad as the stooges, or can it lets hope it isnt and we move forward and finally get hold of our Premier League title and bring it home where it belongs. It took Red Sox 80 years to bring the Super Series title back home 2 years after John W Henry took over and they’ve won it another time since, before that all they did was lose most matches. The time of Babe Ruth was when they used to win it, until they sold him to NY Yankees, which many say was the reason it took 80 years to win it back. However it plans out lets hope for the best……YNWA
I think something your missing is that this is not just John Henry personally buying the club. this is NESV . John Henry himself may “only” be worth 1.1billion dollars but NESV is quite a bit larger in worth and Value.
Having quite a few friends in the Boston area. No one is more respected on New England than the owners of the Sox. Even more loved than Kraft , the owner of the Patriots , who was himself rumored to be interested in LFC before H&G bought us.
Debt reducing Cash , and a respect for History goes a long way.
All this talk I keep hearing about Purslow being out of order for ‘sacking Rafa’ is extremely puzzling.
Does anyone have some sort of insider knowledge that it was Purslow that ‘decided’ that Benitez had to go?
I’m amazed Rafa stayed as long as he did to be honest. Having been lied to by the cancers time after time over transfer budgets etc. it’s no wonder he felt he had to go. Conversely it would come as no suprise if it became known that H&G were the actual brains behind facilitating his exit.
Just because the job fell to Purslow to oversee Rafa’s exit (with a few million in his pocket) doesn’t mean it was in any way Purslow’s decision does it?! Imagine if he’d refused to do it and resigned we’d probably have seen Mack Hicks on the board like a rat up a trouser leg, and a very different outcome to recent events surrounding the sale!
As for Kenny, I’m extremely grateful (especially in light of all these fickle Roy-Bashers) he isn’t in Roy’s firing line right now after so long out of the job.
We have a week or so more to pray that Hicks doesn’t foil our boards fantastic efforts with some hideous ace up the sleeve. Until then, and beyond (all being well), let’s get behind the board, the manager, the new owners and above all the team.
Some day soon I’m praying we’ll be able to think about little more than football :)
Ive never questioned purslows intergrity nor Broughtons. Look at this way they dont get any personal benifit i.e. a bonus for selling to a particular owner. I beieve that there was enoromous numbers of interested parties and they decided to go for NESV. I think people need to understand that NESV are made up of a total off 17 investors. Some who may even be welthier than John henry himself. This consortium has vast experience in developing sports teams so i believe that we wont see any fall outs in the future. Also there may be other companies i.e. New york times who may be involved in the deal. So we are looking at a plethora of owners whos potential wealth can be easily be well over 4 billion (may even be double that).
Looking at our commercial revenue generated we are one of the best performing clubs in the premier league. The only issue was that revenue was being paid to reduce the debt. However with a decent amount of investment from a chain of investors we can easily have a very healthy tranfer kitty along with our commercial revenue.
I can only say that im confident that weve the board have made the right choice. The owners have experience, traditional values, wealth and are very astute buisnessmen.
Zahid, he’s not spending his own money!! His consortium is made up of 17 wealthy individuals something Broughton mentioned if you heard his interview!
FYI There are 18 wealthy investors in NESV. Don’t let Henry’s personal net worth of around $1b scare you.
Purslow knew he would be needed at the end game so he could not step out of line in the run up to this which is why he may have been seen to be on H & G’s side.Now end game has arrived he has turned round and bit them.Happy days
I think we should all thank CP, MB and IA for their work in helping to get rid of those 2 cowboys, and the fact that they will make a loss makes it even sweeter.
Alright guys cheers for the info, by the way i did type that up lastnight when i just heard about the offer and had to google who he was and what he was about. Anyways we know abit more now and hope hes our saviour and has the clubs best interests at heart. How much is the NESV worth?……YNWA JFT96
rafa was sacked because the club finished in 7th position,and were knocked out of the champions league group stage.thats not acceptable for a club like liverpool fc.plus benitez had wasted a lot of money.the board were right to sack benitez.get over it antoine,who are you to judge christian purslows motives by suggesting that he is only in it for the money.you should realise that purslow was a successful multi millionaire long before he ever took the job at liverpool.
well done purslow,ayre,and broughton. you have all definitely gone up n my opinion , special thanks to all of you , i actually thought you didnt have the best interests of the club at heart, broughton has acted professionally and has got on with the job, thank you martin broughton we scousers wont forget what you did for all liverpudlians worldwide ,yesterday.also big thanks to purslow what you did took courage and professionalism the same can be said of ian ayre, you could say the 3 of you last night made a bit of history last night which will always be remembered as the night the 3 RED execs kicked yank ass YNWA.
Although I didn’t agree with Rafa’s sacking I can see why it happened. Rafa never came to terms with our situation and spent Man City money on right backs when the main issue was our attack. So sacking him was understandable and in no way a reflection of Purslow’s appreciation or regard for the club. We have to wait and see if this is the right decision but an expansion of Anfield sounds like a great idea and will save us £200-300M. Plus this guy heads a consortium. His private wealth will probably have little to do with our transfer budget. Sort of like Arsenal’s situation. It’s about the wealth of NESV that we should be looking at. Hopefully this will end the current paranoia around the club and prevent ego driven vultures like Jamie Kanwar using the carcass of our club to create division amongst the Liverpool family.
Read this article lads:
http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/liverpool-is-my-home-and-i-will-come-back-2362665.html
Benitez’s first interview re Pool since leaving. In the context of what we’ve seen these past few weeks it’s a tad saddening to read. What’s it they say that you never really know what you’ve got til it’s gone.
If there’s any consolation for us it’s that we’ve hit rock bottom, the only way is up. We’ll have to just give the Sox boys a chance and get right behind Hodgson and the team.
Reina, Gerrard, Torres and Cole (soon). 4 reasons to always be positive
Apologize, Dont Apologize, Purslow wants a better jo, He can Get a better JOB…
Excuse me guys but WHAT THE FUCK?
we have two objectives.
1-Get rid of stinky Yanks and get good investors.
2-Get investment in Team and NEW STADIUM.
anyone trying to do these jobs does not need an apology or certificate of merit. THEY NEED SUPPORT,
THEY HAVE ALMOST COMPLETED OBJECTIVE ONE.
AND AS FAR AS THE STADIUM GOES, BROUGHTON SAID TODAY THAT THEY HAVE COMMITTED 60,000 SEATS. Now if taht comes at Anfield or ‘NEW ANFIELD’, I don’t give a flying FUDGE.
PLEASE BEHAVE LIKE TRUE LFC FANS.
YNWA !
desy, jamie kanwar has gone missing again, i think he’s really upset that his paymasters have been given the bums rush.
jibran, are real liverpool supporters not allowed to apologise when they are wrong ? its nothing to do with merit its about being maligned unfairly. and liverpool fc know all about that.
You were wrong about him just admit it and stop this witch hunt………
Rice, I don’t trust him that is the bottom line.
@ Stan Howard,
Well there is nothing wrong with an apology but come on, why make it an ego issue, if someone does’nt like the guy, why apologize.
AS A WRITER ON EOTK, I CAN ASSURE YOU THAT ANTOINE’S BY EXPRESSING HIS PERSONAL THOUGHTS ABOUT PURSLOW DID NOT INTEND IT TO BE THE VIEW OF A GROUP OF FANS OR THE WHOLE WEBSITE.
EVEN IF I HAD WRITTEN AN ARTICLE PRAISING HOW MUCH I LIKE AND ADMIRE PURSLOW RIGHT ON THE FACE OF THIS WEBSITE, ANTOINE WOULD NEVER HAVE REMOVED IT. hope you get how it works here my Red brother.
YNWA
Hey Stan, as long as there’s a hint of disagreement or uncertainty Kanwar will be there to exploit it. His technique is divide and conquer and his reward is an army of sycophants who see him as some internet anti-hero. In reality he just constantly moves goalposts until he can say I told you so and paint himself out to be some Never Been To Anfield Nostradamus. Only on the internet can people like Kanwar exist. The problem is that he will sucker you into a minor dispute and use that to paint himself as a sage who foresaw and predicted everything. He is currently trying to distance himself from his support for Hicks & Gillett but we won’t forget any Hicks-ler sympathisers no matter how much they try to rewrite history.
Purslime is a backstabbing, treacherous liar who is now attempting to ingratiate himself with the new owners since he has seen the writing on the wall as far as Hicks and Gillett are concerned because of their inability to re-finance.
He did what comes naturally to a shitester like him and stabbed his former benefactors in the back.
There are unfortunately a lot of naive and gullible Liverpool fans who will and are swallowing any amount of risible gobshite from Purslime’s PR agencies.
Purslime will never be forgotten by true Reds for his crimes against the team and the club arising from his own personal vanity and greed.
He’s scum and he’s not welcome here… end of story.
I think Purslow and Broughton have taken some unfair flak..fans have been in the dark and getting very edgy,myself included..opinions have been swaying back and forward depending on what was the last article you read.. add to that the worry all summer of whether our best players would be staying and our poor start in the league,the fans can’t take much more.Hopefully any legal challenge will fail and we can get back to concentrating on results on the pitch and there wont be any more distractions for the players.
Spot on, Antoine- whatever Pusrlow’s motives he done the right thing yesterday, and we need to back the UK based members of the Board right now to ensure Hicks is defeated.
To be fair if anyone is to appologise it should be the 2 plonkers Hicks n Gillett. Anyways John W Henry hasn’t bought us yet once he does he has to convince us all before anyone of us is appologising to Perslow or any other board member. At the end of the day the people who where agains Perslow n the rest had a valid reason they care about the club just as much and nothing was coming out from the club what direction the club was going, if we had any buyers, the deadline date etc we had to find out most things ourselves.
I just want to finish by saying i was a Rafa fan i was sad to see him leave, but i do think his time was up and the move had to be made. I also don’t by this he had the money argument yes he did n made few bad transfer mistakes as most managers have but he had to sell before he could buy how are you meant to challenge for the title, champions league etc with our best 11 they get tired, we pick up injurys we need a big squad like for like replacements. Anyway Perslow made the decision and brought in Roy which was his biggest mistake in my eyes Kenny should have been brought in to steady the ship and when we got taken over he could have stepped aside or gone for O’Neil. We will soon find out if Perslow was true to his word when he said he had the best interests of the club when these new owners come in and give us a chance to bring home our title if they do then the people calling who where against him maybe could applogise but thats left up to them know one should be forced.
Sorry for going on i get carried away lol
P.S. Where is that Git Jaimie Kanwar……YNWA JFT96
Put it this way- anything right now, even Cilla Black, is better than Hicks & Gillet. This Henry guy certainly isn’t loaded like Abramovic or the City owner- he’s more on a par with the Spurs and Villa owners in terms of dosh, and sounds like he’s similar to them in the sense he’ll want on the pitch success rather than just a profit. He transformed the Red Sox to a trophy winning team, and redeveloped the stadium nicely (if u’ve watched the recent film, The Town u’d know!) and seems the kinda guy to take pride in the team, fans, and want on the field success…but then we thought the same when we were told about H&G’s achievements in US sports!
The bottom line for us fans is not how much the new owner knows about football, or whether he supports LFC, or even if he’s a nice guy- its all about how much flipping cash he’ll provide the manager in the transfer windows…consistently in every transfer window. I reckon we’ll get about £50-60m to spend in each window out of Henry, which compared to City & Chelsea is peanuts, but its the minimum required to secure the 3 or 4 quality additions (a £20m player, 2x£15m, and a £10m) the team needs to challenge for the league next season. If we sell flops like Babel and Lucas we could buy more quality, whereas with Hicks he pocketed most of the sales money: sold Xabi and Masch for £50m and got Aqualani and Poulsen for £24m (whilst I’m rubbing it in: we then off loaded Aqualani for nout, after getting absolutely nothing out of him…we may get £10m if Juve decide they want him!).
3 things keep me positive about this Henry dude if he succeeds in buying us: firstly he’ll be a sole trader- he’ll call the shots on his own, and it’ll mark the end of the in-house fighting we had with Tom n Jerry in charge. I also believe he’s the kinda guy to not interefere with team management. A Boston journalist and Red Sox fan said today during a live blog with fans that Henry is surrounded with skilled people at the Red Sox, and that they’re not all yes men. Basically he listens to people who know about the game.
Secondly, the potential new owner is keen on redeveloping Anfield to 60,000 capacity rather than moving to a new site. The idea of moving from our beloved Kop always bothered me, even though I accepted it was necessary. A bigger Anfield is perfect. No doubt there’ll be disruptions during the works, but it worked well in Boston.
Lastly, the Red Sox have a massive Irish connection, and passionate supporters like us. They also have a rivalry with the NY Yankees, very similar to ours with Man Utd. If we’re bought by Henry we’d have strong links with the Red Sox, and guess who currently have good ties with the Yankees…yep them Mancs down the road! Bring it on!
The Mancs and The Yankees got connection..That makes them the MancKees (monkeys)..agree sam..bring the MancKees on!
I have known Purslow for several years. We are not friends but I had dealings with him at Mid Ocean, the private equity firm he worked for and we often ended meetings by talking about the state of the club.
Purslow grew up on the Wirral and has been a season ticket holder since he was a kid. He was involved at Anfield behind the scenes since G&H got involved in 2007. This is more as a result of his extensive network than anything else. He is not a natural CEO and is a decent (not outstanding) businessman with an average track record in private equity.
He is a friend of Kenny Dalglish an known him for many years. The uplift in role that Kenny has had at Anfield in the past 12 months is as a result of Purslows involvement. I honestly believe that whilst Purslow probably wanted to give the job to Kenny – he would have been concerned that Kenny would be where Hodgson is now – and i think he tried to protect him from being in that position.
Purslow loves Liverpool as much as you or I. That he is qualified to take on the CEO role more than we are is not just his luck, he worked bloody hard for it. He is a local middle-class boy made good. If I had the opportunity to do what he has – i would have taken it like a shot.
I think the biggest problem with Chrisian Purslow is class. When a militant SOS and socialist football ‘guru’ Rogan Taylor call the shots, then there will always be friction with someone like Purslow. Why is he ‘slimy’? Because he isn’t like the majority of ‘working class’ fans. But it doesn’t mean that he did not care or lied. I can’t specifically see any examples of where he misled fans.
Purslow has done the role for the love of the club. He hasn’t been paid and he will get nothing from the sale of the club unless, and i don’t think they will, the new owners retain him. Financially he will make far more money by returning to murky world of private equity than he will by ‘playing God’ in football.
The Fans are always frozen out of what really happens behind the scenes and that’s the way it should be. What Purslow, Broughton and Ayre have achieved behind the scenes is remarkable. Tbat they did so by actively working against Gillett and Hicks should afford them legendary status. In my eyes they will Never Walk Alone.
Shanklyman
Don’t know how much he is friends from Dalglish.
Purslow probably does love Liverpool FC. The fact is he was implicated in the “senior source” debacle. Now, he is allowed to disagree with the manager but to go behind his back and leak stories to undermine him is treacherous to say the least. As fo saying he did not give Kenny the job because he was looking out for kenny’s best interests, well I think Dalglish can look after himself. The sale has happened. NESV look like winners in a normal type league. The PL is no longer normal. Chelski and the rich Arabs at City have seen to that. NESV won’t plough millions for transfers so our only hope is financing from gate reciepts from the ‘new’ stadium. The only issue is they have not explicitly commited to that and Anfield has limited capacity for expansion. NESV is good news and gives us all a sigh of relief but I think its not exactly the feeling of euphoria we were really hoping for.
I blame SOS for the hate of Purslow and then the idiots in the media who followed up on there hatred without any factual evidence.
Sos took there stance because Purslow did not agree to their unworkable fan ownership plans and then encouraged stories negative of Purslow. the average fan just followed SOS’s lead. The average or below average reporters also followed the SOS line.
Those who were calling for Purslow and Broughton head were the ones damaging the club.
Don’t understand where these SOS haters come from?
Obviously there are haters who would rather trust a Chelski fan and a banker rather than Liverpool Reds who follow their club religiously.
I think its more that it was obvious Purslow was on the fans side to anyone with any intelligence and SOS were alienating him and discrediting him.
Lets be straight here. Without Broughton and Purslow we would have had little chance of ditching the Yanks. credit to them and Ian.
SOS acted like the ALQAEDA of LFC fans in regards to Purslow in response to your previous comment.
“rather than Liverpool Reds who follow their club religiously.”
Out ov all the posts i have read on this page i think i should have started at the bottom.What shanklyman has wrote and hit the nail on the head purslow in my eyes has done a fantastic job.whithout purslow or ian ayre liverpool fc would be in a worse financial mess than what they are now they have brought some good financial clout to the club.YNWA!!!
Antoine – I come from Liverpool. I used to sometimes skip school and walk to Anfield to queue for autographs. I was at Hillsborough. I’ve had season tickets. Been ‘home’ and ‘away’ for seasons at a time. I’ve been across Europe from Istanbul to Barcelona, Athens to Monaco. I stood in the main stand after the Sunderland game and sang ‘Yanks Out’. I live and breathe Liverpool FC.
BUT, despite coming from Liverpool I don’t have an accent – my parents could afford a private school and now I earn a decent living as a banker in London (but not in a mega bucks way). Why is this relevant? Because i’m not that different to Purslow and I would more than likely (bar the appointment of Hodgson) have taken the same course of action he had.
Why he is villified by SOS i don’t know. He has done what he has done for the love of the club and he should be supported. My point was that the majority of those in control of SOS are solid, salt of the earth scousers who also want the best for the club. I just think that if Purslow spoke differently he would hold more appeal and be more supportable to the masses.
Liverpool as a city has always had militancy and unionisation. SOS is the Union of Liverpool Supporters and by its nature is a militant organisation prepared to take action. Purslow is from the Wirral and probably a Tory. Just because he is different does not mean he should be villified. If SOS had their way we would likely have a Derek Hatton figure installed as CEO – now that would be a problem…
SOS will now have nothing to do for a while. But you can bet on your life that the next time we hear from them after the ownership is resolved is some form of action against the new owners complaining about the cost of attendance and the price of a half time pie. And I will probably support their cause…
Shanklyman
Get real! Purslow AND Rafa said he quit “by mutual consent”! Whats wrong, you’re getting on like some jilted housewife who cant believe her man left her!
Rafa left due to the impossible working conditions under the hapless yanks AND because he’d spent c.£170m and still had a cr@p squad. I know this isnt the net spend, but regardless, if you spent £170m on players and already had SG in your squad you shouldnt be playing Europa league football.
Working at LFC under two tw@ts wasnt a good career move for Purslow or Broughton, so i dont know why anyone thinks theyre looking out for themselves.
In the face on constant criticism from mouthy whingers on the sidelines, they’ve got on with the job of lending credibility to the sale process and securing the clubs future – even working against their employers to do so.
History will remember them as friends of LFC – if the sale proceeds, those two will have left the club a much better legacy than Rafa.
YNWA
Duffer, Rafa said he was fired.
Duffer -Rafa said he was sacked. He was working under impossible conditions anyway but refused to go to the likes of Real and Juve’. As for saying we should be in CL just for having SG is naive to say the least. Maybe we were in the CL every year under Houllier managing SG. When we were in it we couldn’t pass the quarters. Compare that to winning the CL, going to the final and pretty much beating all of the top teams in the competition. You were probably one of those who hounded Rafa out thinking somehow some world class manager would be attracted to us. The pen has not been put to paper and already your singing Purslow’s praises. Lets wait and see. I hope everything turns out ok but rememeber these guys are businessmen which means they wont throw money just for the cache of having a winning team. They also have not committed to a NEW stadium which pretty means we will have to do with expanding Anfield. Broughton was very hazy on this subject when interviewed. I wish some of our fans would take a breather and make a measured response. I seem to remember that some fans were waving US flags the last time we had new owners. Look how that turned out.
I think Purslow took the pragmatic approach in sacking Rafa. Depression had set in at the club, the season was an abject failure and there was no money available to change it. Something had to change. There wasn’t enough money to effectively change players, the owners weren’t going anywhere. All that was left was Rafa. None of us knew what was happening at the club but I didn’t hear much calls of support from any player really within the club, and you can assume that their views were canvassed. With that in mind, and with the owners entrenched in their position something had to give. Maybe it was more to do with timing but I do understand Purslow’s decision. My point is that it’s like dumping a girlfriend. You don’t dump a bird usually for an uglier, dumber replacement. But maybe f**king a brainless, fat slag for a few months before you hook up with something special is just the tonic, I don’t know. But it’s a decision that has to be made and Purslow made one. I may not have gone that way but I understand it.
“Obviously there are haters who would rather trust a Chelski fan and a banker rather than Liverpool Reds who follow their club religiously.”
Seriously Antoine, stop flogging a dead horse. Yes, Broughton supports Chelsea but it has absolutely no impact on the job he does for Liverpool. Purslow’s a banker, and in that role he organised a fantastic sponsorship deal for the club. What other type of person do you really want managing those type of deals?
Ian Ayre was the one who got the sponsorship deals and not Purslow.